Any number of businesses regularly send printed information to their clients or customers. Recently, the introduction of the non-impact printer has allowed for easier production of these documents. The non-impact printer introduced the concept of producing documents which can be personalized to the individual customer or client. This not only improved the visual appeal of the document being sent to the customer, but also improved the accuracy of the information which the document contains. The non-impact electronic printer creates documents which look as if they are created for each individual customer or client.
Because the non-impact printer has provided for flexibility in printing, numerous applications have arisen. These applications include multiple-page letters, billing statement, dividend notices, and checks, including payroll, accounts payables, and monthly disability payments. In all of these cases, one general feature is a degree of personalization which is applied to all of the documents. Consequently, because of the attractiveness of the non-impact printer in producing custom documents, a second industry began to develop which is called post-finishing.
Post-finishing is the process which is applied to the output from the non-impact printer Depending on the application, a number of procedures, or applications are performed on each individual document For instance, these procedures can include collating, which is collecting a number of printed pages in a set; stapling, which is binding the set of printed pages within a document together; gluing, which would be used to form a personalized envelope, a self-mailer, or a bound set; folding, preparing the printed output pages for insertion into an envelope or other container; and slitting, which is a means to obtain two or more forms from a single printed sheet. Any one or all of these procedures may be required to produce the desired final product.
Today, the user of the non-impact printer creating these documents achieves substantial savings and increased productivity by combining the printing operations and the post-finishing operations. This process requires that the post-finishing equipment be connected serially or more commonly referred to as in-line with the printing devices. Before any of these post-finishing processes can be started however, the printed output taken from the non-impact printer must be correct.
One of the more popular uses for the non-impact printer is in the direct-mail industry. With non-impact printing, a high degree of personalization is obtained thereby creating a substantial marketing tool. As the typical direct mail package or document is made up of a number of individually personalized pieces or pages, each one of these individualized pages needs to be accurate in not only its content but in the number of pages contained within the package itself Each individual page of the entire document is usually a pre-printed form. These pre-printed pages are then sent through the non-impact printer to add additional information which is specifically directed toward the individual customer.
The introduction of the non-impact printer has also improved documents produced by major credit card companies, banks and other industries which rely on individualized information sent on a regular basis to their customers. It is particularly important to these individuals that the information contained within the package contains the proper number of pages designated to be included in the document. In particular, credit card companies and banks produce enormous numbers of documents, each document containing information concerning the personal balance of individual accounts.
The banking industry and insurance industry is a major user of the non-impact printer to produce information that is sent on a monthly basis to an individual customer who has an account with the bank. The information sent to the individual client contains a number of pages which can include information concerning check numbers, amounts of checks, and to whom the check is made out. In these situations, it is critical that the document sent does not contain duplicate pages, missing pages, or double pages.
The development of magnetic toner allowed the non-impact printer to be used in the production of checks. Major companies began printing their payroll and accounts payable checks on these electronic printing systems. In these applications, the problems of doubles, duplicates, missing pages and unprinted pages, becomes catastrophic. A missing check is an employee not paid or a payment not made. A double is a payment and blank check. A duplicate is the same as making a double payment. The potential for fraudulent use of the non-impact printing of checks is an auditor's nightmare.
With the introduction of the non-impact printer, as many copies of a single page can be created as needed with the same and typically superior print quality While the non-impact printer resolved many of the problems that were inherent in other printers, including impact printers, the non-impact printer still has a few problems. These problems are inherent to the non-impact printer and the cut sheet non-impact printer.
These problems can include the occasional missing page usually produced by operator error, the duplicate page which appears to be a difficult problem to solve in the non-impact printer, the piggy-back page or double which is caused by feeding two forms at the same time, and a page which has no printing printed on it, the unprinted page.
With the types of applications mentioned previously, for which the non-impact printer is used today, specifically, check statements and other legally sensitive documents, these problems have a greater impact than when they occur in direct-mail advertising. For example, a missing page from a bank statement or a telephone bill causes concern to the customer about the balance of his account or the amount of his bill. A duplicate page or a blank page causes similar problems Not only do these problems create anxiety for a customer, they are also an embarassment to the producer of the individual documents.